November 10, 2013
The 25th Sunday after Pentecost, November 10, 2013
Spared from a Sadducee Moment a sermon by the Rev. Warren L. Pittman Texts: Haggai 1:15b-2:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38 Last Friday, I was spared from having a “Sadducee Moment.” Just sitting down at home in the kitchen for lunch on my day off, I decided to ignore a knock at the front door. I know the New Testament tells us not to be inhospitable to strangers, but folks that come a-knocking don’t always come off as the “angels” they might me. After lunch I checked the front steps to see if it had been a delivery, and wedged in the door was a brochure about death and resurrection, kindly left for my perusal by a pair – they do still travel in pairs, don’t they? – of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Let me confess that I had a twinge of regret for ignoring their knock; and include in that confession that I was sorry to have missed their visit … for all the wrong reasons. But, I realized as I remembered this week’s Gospel, letting them come … and go … without a conversation actually spared me a “Sadducee Moment.” Today’s Gospel conversation – and I use that term generously – is between Jesus and some Sadducees, another branch of the Palestinian Judaism of Jesus’ day. Just as there are and have been different expressions of Christianity almost since the Day of Pentecost, so there are and have been different expressions of Judaism, probably since the first Passover. And a quick study of Islam, Buddhism, and other world faiths show we’re not alone in this. Such diversity is meant to be a good thing, allowing different expressions of faith to complement each other: but again and again human shortsightedness turns it into a competition, different groups vying over and against one another.
“We’re right, therefore you must be wrong; we’re going to heaven, so you must be going to hell.” (Curious that a reading of the Qur’an speaks of God creating human diversity just so that people could learn from one another, and not all think alike!) Anyway, Luke tells us that the Sadducees were the first-century Jews who did not buy into the – for them – “modern and unscriptural idea” of resurrection. “Read what Moses wrote,” they said to the Pharisees, the bible interpreters, “and show us anything he said about ‘resurrection.’” So when the Sadducees come to Jesus asking the question we heard in the Gospel, they’re asking for details about something in which they don’t even believe. The Sadducees just seem to want to make Jesus look silly and to make themselves look good. And remembering all this, I realized that I wanted to do to the “JWs” at my door just about everything those Sadducees wanted to do to Jesus! With that in mind, I go back to the Gospel, and take notice that Jesus actually wants to have the conversation the Sadducees (and I, with the Jehovah’s Witnesses) didn’t want to have. Jesus actually responds to their question. Such questions deserve to be ignored, but Jesus offers them a reply; and one that doesn’t just thwart their efforts to make fun of him, but offers them – and anyone within earshot – a whole lot more than they were asking for! Of course, I doubt the Sadducees paid much attention to what he said. Know-it-alls are not very open to new information. Fortunately for us, others did listen, and passed along what they heard, because this wouldn't be the last time Jesus, or his followers, would be asked such confrontive, competitive, we-know-it-all-and-youdon’t questions. What Luke records for us this morning is one story among many. Paul writes to the Thessalonians about “know-it-alls” who were trying in their own way to distract the church from the path on which the Holy Spirit was leading it. He warns his readers not to be “put-down” or “one-upped” by questions and statements from factions that quickly appeared within the newly gathered followers of The Way: factions who knew better than others – including God – what God was up to. …we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way … And Jesus wasn’t the first to encounter “Sadducees” in trying to teach God’s Word. Our first reading this morning comes from Haggai, a “minor” prophet, but “minor” in name only. His book can be easily missed when thumbing through the Old Testament, spanning only two chapters. His career was a short one as well, at least the career we know about.
The two chapters we have to read cover oracles that took place over the course of only four months. But those four months fell during one of the most significant times not just in Hebrew history, but in world history. Haggai writes during what’s now called the “Axial Age.” 500 or so years B.C.E., five centuries before Jesus, a whole lot of significant change was going on in the world in the arena of religion and philosophy. This was the time in which a philosopher we know as Confucius was compiling a book of insights that became, and still is, a part of Chinese culture; the time in which an Indian “formerly known as prince” “woke up,” and was named “Buddha” by his followers; the time in which a Chinese poet composed a narrative called simply “The Way,” the Tao; the time in which toga-clad thinkers like Pythagoras and Heraclitus were contemplating the mysteries of the universe in Greece, and paving the way for a new generation of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the time around which a Persian named Zoroaster was preaching about “light” and “darkness” – spiritual metaphors that transcended culture; and a time in which the people of Israel were starting a whole new life after a crisis that almost deleted them from history. A small collection of tribes and families had enjoyed a few hundred years of nationhood in the hills and plains of Palestine, sharing a story about their liberation from slavery by a man named Moses, who called them into a special relationship with a God he had met on a mountainside. This Moses and this God gave them a new identity and a new appreciation for the land on which they lived. But things had gone awry, and invasions from other lands and empires had whittled their land down at last to nothing. The land was lost to them, and with it, for many, their God. After a generation or so of what came to be known as “The Exile” in Babylon, another empire rose and conquered the conquerors: Persia took over that corner of the world, and, the new administration told the people of Israel to go home. And those who did return brought with them the seeds of a new way of thinking about “their” God. The “God of Israel” was now being seen not just as “a” God, but as “The” God of all humankind. One of the tasks set before them as they returned to their homeland was to rebuild their cities and their temple, and Haggai was one of their cheerleaders, encouraging them, and helping them with this new way of thinking about God and their place in the universe. Haggai could see the "big picture" and, like Siddhartha Gautama in India, wanted people to "wake up" and smell the incense!
But he had to deal with his own “Sadducees,” those among the people who talked about “the way we were … the good old days … it’ll never work …”: people caught up in a past in which few of them even lived, but seemingly incapable of envisioning anything in the way of a future for themselves. Haggai’s motto might well have been, “Folks, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” The Good News that runs through all of this morning’s readings – in addition to the realization that God puts up with Sadducees of all shapes and sizes – Paul summarizes elsewhere in his letters with two verses that bear remembering: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. (Ephesians 3.20-21) Haggai, Paul, Jesus all offer us not merely the vision of a God at work in the continuing creation, re-creation, and resurrection of the whole world, but the invitation to be a part of that work. Haggai invites all God’s people to lend a hand in the building of a new temple, promising in God’s name that "The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts." Jesus tells us that in the age he ushers in – in the abundant life found in and through him – we join with God “… like angels … being children of the resurrection.” This past week, some on you may have seen this picture: one of those snapshots that “goes viral” on the internet.
It’s a picture – an icon-in-the-making of the resurrection life Jesus is trying to help the Sadducees see; an almost unimaginable life of wonderful intimacy among reconciled people, people who have come to know themselves all as children of the resurrection, as children of God. AMEN.
Spared from a Sadducee Moment a sermon by the Rev. Warren L. Pittman Texts: Haggai 1:15b-2:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38 Last Friday, I was spared from having a “Sadducee Moment.” Just sitting down at home in the kitchen for lunch on my day off, I decided to ignore a knock at the front door. I know the New Testament tells us not to be inhospitable to strangers, but folks that come a-knocking don’t always come off as the “angels” they might me. After lunch I checked the front steps to see if it had been a delivery, and wedged in the door was a brochure about death and resurrection, kindly left for my perusal by a pair – they do still travel in pairs, don’t they? – of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Let me confess that I had a twinge of regret for ignoring their knock; and include in that confession that I was sorry to have missed their visit … for all the wrong reasons. But, I realized as I remembered this week’s Gospel, letting them come … and go … without a conversation actually spared me a “Sadducee Moment.” Today’s Gospel conversation – and I use that term generously – is between Jesus and some Sadducees, another branch of the Palestinian Judaism of Jesus’ day. Just as there are and have been different expressions of Christianity almost since the Day of Pentecost, so there are and have been different expressions of Judaism, probably since the first Passover. And a quick study of Islam, Buddhism, and other world faiths show we’re not alone in this. Such diversity is meant to be a good thing, allowing different expressions of faith to complement each other: but again and again human shortsightedness turns it into a competition, different groups vying over and against one another.
“We’re right, therefore you must be wrong; we’re going to heaven, so you must be going to hell.” (Curious that a reading of the Qur’an speaks of God creating human diversity just so that people could learn from one another, and not all think alike!) Anyway, Luke tells us that the Sadducees were the first-century Jews who did not buy into the – for them – “modern and unscriptural idea” of resurrection. “Read what Moses wrote,” they said to the Pharisees, the bible interpreters, “and show us anything he said about ‘resurrection.’” So when the Sadducees come to Jesus asking the question we heard in the Gospel, they’re asking for details about something in which they don’t even believe. The Sadducees just seem to want to make Jesus look silly and to make themselves look good. And remembering all this, I realized that I wanted to do to the “JWs” at my door just about everything those Sadducees wanted to do to Jesus! With that in mind, I go back to the Gospel, and take notice that Jesus actually wants to have the conversation the Sadducees (and I, with the Jehovah’s Witnesses) didn’t want to have. Jesus actually responds to their question. Such questions deserve to be ignored, but Jesus offers them a reply; and one that doesn’t just thwart their efforts to make fun of him, but offers them – and anyone within earshot – a whole lot more than they were asking for! Of course, I doubt the Sadducees paid much attention to what he said. Know-it-alls are not very open to new information. Fortunately for us, others did listen, and passed along what they heard, because this wouldn't be the last time Jesus, or his followers, would be asked such confrontive, competitive, we-know-it-all-and-youdon’t questions. What Luke records for us this morning is one story among many. Paul writes to the Thessalonians about “know-it-alls” who were trying in their own way to distract the church from the path on which the Holy Spirit was leading it. He warns his readers not to be “put-down” or “one-upped” by questions and statements from factions that quickly appeared within the newly gathered followers of The Way: factions who knew better than others – including God – what God was up to. …we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way … And Jesus wasn’t the first to encounter “Sadducees” in trying to teach God’s Word. Our first reading this morning comes from Haggai, a “minor” prophet, but “minor” in name only. His book can be easily missed when thumbing through the Old Testament, spanning only two chapters. His career was a short one as well, at least the career we know about.
The two chapters we have to read cover oracles that took place over the course of only four months. But those four months fell during one of the most significant times not just in Hebrew history, but in world history. Haggai writes during what’s now called the “Axial Age.” 500 or so years B.C.E., five centuries before Jesus, a whole lot of significant change was going on in the world in the arena of religion and philosophy. This was the time in which a philosopher we know as Confucius was compiling a book of insights that became, and still is, a part of Chinese culture; the time in which an Indian “formerly known as prince” “woke up,” and was named “Buddha” by his followers; the time in which a Chinese poet composed a narrative called simply “The Way,” the Tao; the time in which toga-clad thinkers like Pythagoras and Heraclitus were contemplating the mysteries of the universe in Greece, and paving the way for a new generation of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the time around which a Persian named Zoroaster was preaching about “light” and “darkness” – spiritual metaphors that transcended culture; and a time in which the people of Israel were starting a whole new life after a crisis that almost deleted them from history. A small collection of tribes and families had enjoyed a few hundred years of nationhood in the hills and plains of Palestine, sharing a story about their liberation from slavery by a man named Moses, who called them into a special relationship with a God he had met on a mountainside. This Moses and this God gave them a new identity and a new appreciation for the land on which they lived. But things had gone awry, and invasions from other lands and empires had whittled their land down at last to nothing. The land was lost to them, and with it, for many, their God. After a generation or so of what came to be known as “The Exile” in Babylon, another empire rose and conquered the conquerors: Persia took over that corner of the world, and, the new administration told the people of Israel to go home. And those who did return brought with them the seeds of a new way of thinking about “their” God. The “God of Israel” was now being seen not just as “a” God, but as “The” God of all humankind. One of the tasks set before them as they returned to their homeland was to rebuild their cities and their temple, and Haggai was one of their cheerleaders, encouraging them, and helping them with this new way of thinking about God and their place in the universe. Haggai could see the "big picture" and, like Siddhartha Gautama in India, wanted people to "wake up" and smell the incense!
But he had to deal with his own “Sadducees,” those among the people who talked about “the way we were … the good old days … it’ll never work …”: people caught up in a past in which few of them even lived, but seemingly incapable of envisioning anything in the way of a future for themselves. Haggai’s motto might well have been, “Folks, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” The Good News that runs through all of this morning’s readings – in addition to the realization that God puts up with Sadducees of all shapes and sizes – Paul summarizes elsewhere in his letters with two verses that bear remembering: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. (Ephesians 3.20-21) Haggai, Paul, Jesus all offer us not merely the vision of a God at work in the continuing creation, re-creation, and resurrection of the whole world, but the invitation to be a part of that work. Haggai invites all God’s people to lend a hand in the building of a new temple, promising in God’s name that "The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts." Jesus tells us that in the age he ushers in – in the abundant life found in and through him – we join with God “… like angels … being children of the resurrection.” This past week, some on you may have seen this picture: one of those snapshots that “goes viral” on the internet.
It’s a picture – an icon-in-the-making of the resurrection life Jesus is trying to help the Sadducees see; an almost unimaginable life of wonderful intimacy among reconciled people, people who have come to know themselves all as children of the resurrection, as children of God. AMEN.
